DIGITAL FORENSICS IS AN EXACT SCIENCE – NOT THE PROCEDURES BUT THE RESULTS
The past sixty years have witnessed the most rapid transformation of human activity in history, with digital electronic technology as the driving force. Nothing has been left untouched. The way people communicate, live, work, travel and consume products and services have all changed forever. The digital revolution has sparred the rapid expansion of economic activity across the face of planet. The internet has become as open, publicly and widely used as a source of data transmission and exchanging the messages between criminals, terrorists and those who have illegal motivations. Cyber Forensics is a part of forensic science in which we used to collect, inspect, interpret, report and present computer related electronic evidence. It plays an important role in preserving evidence, identifying criminals, protecting corporate interests, assisting in cyber crime investigations and facilitating legal proceedings. As Nowadays, Technology continues to evolve and much cyber crime also increases day by day .So, importance of digital forensics will continue to grow in today’s digital age. They also show their legal aspects and present them as evidence in court of law.
We often use digital forensics as its synonyms for computer forensics .Cyber forensic involves various process i.e.; Identification, Preservation, Collection, Examination, Analysis, Interpretation, Documentation and lastly evidence presentation. However, for integration of such technology also introduces number of cyber security challenges, necessitating robust protective measures and advanced cyber forensics too safeguard Sensitive data and critical infrastructures. Cyber forensics involves cyber security which prevents unwanted access, theft, damage, or attacks on computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks and data. “IF CYBER SECURITY IS PREVENTION THEN CYBER FORENSICS IS THE CURE” Both are equally important pillars of digital security. Cyber forensics is needed for the investigation of crime and law enforcement. There are many cases which occur nowadays on a large scale which affects people life and due to which they file a complaint in crime department. Cases include Hacking and Denial of services (DOS) attacks etc. There are many cases of Phishing also. Cyber forensics mainly focuses on IPAP (Identification, Presentation, Analysis and Presentation). They also follow LOCARD’S PRINCIPLE (i.e.; PRINCIPLE OF EXCHANGE) – Perpetrator of a crime will bring something into crime scene and leave with something from it and that both can be used as forensic evidence; Thus “Every cyber Fraud or cyber crime will have Evidence.”Cyber forensic also link with the legal procedure which mainly focus on maintaining Chain of Custody.”
Forensic analysis is performed on evidence to assist the court in establishing physical facts, so that criminal or civil disputes can be resolved. ‘Artifacts ‘ are digital footprints that get left behind by the activities of devices user. Legal Search authority is the first step in the digital forensic process. Digital forensic evidence proposed for admission in court must satisfy two conditions: It must be relevant and it must be “derived by the scientific method” and “supported by appropriate validation.” Legal Issues also have to save Personal Privacy, Territorial Privacy and Information Privacy. “The Electronic Communication Privacy Act ” and “India IT Act 2000” are some acts which deals with the issues related to use of computer, its system ,computer network and the Internet ,etc. There are many real time cyber forensics examples like
– Illegal money transfer (Maharashtra)
-Hosting obscene profiles (Tamil Nadu)
-Creating fake profiles (Arunachal Pradesh)
-Intellectual Property Theft (Karnataka)
-Hacking (Karnataka)
In these cases, victim report to the cyber crime ,then try to resolve the cases by the help of forensic cyber experts and also some cases they have to present an evidence in court so that accused get punished. During solving the cases, Cyber experts faces many challenges like Data Encryption, Data Destruction, Data Storage, etc. Tools used in digital forensics are Forensic software, Forensic imaging, Forensic analysis software, others. During all these “Preserving a chain of custody for Electronic evidences” is compulsory.
Sometimes Cyber Crime are also done by our government but this is done in rare cases and mainly for safety Purposes. Cyber forensic are of different types like Disc Forensic, Network Forensic, Wireless Forensic, Data Forensic, Malware Forensic ,Email Forensic ,Memory Forensic. Nowadays, with an increase in getting connected to social sites, cyber crime increases day by day, due to which many people commit suicide or wrong things, like some wrong people used others pictures and videos for wrong purpose or by uploading vulgar pictures of others on different online platform due to which victim get harassed and commit suicide, and there are many more cases related to this reported in police station and experts used to solve these cases and made accused to get punished. There are many frauds also happened by knowing your basic details from you by phishing you though different digital media platform. So, People have to more careful while using digital platform, and always have to change their password time to time so that criminal don’t get into your device easily.
As Internet technology advances so does the threat of cyber crime. In times like these we must protect ourselves from cyber crime. Anti- virus software firewalls and security patches are just the beginning. Never open suspicious emails and only navigate to trusted sites. With computer becoming more and more involved in our everyday lives, both professionally and socially, there is a need for computer forensic experts. This field will enable crucial electronic evidence to be found, whether it was lost, deleted, damaged or hidden and used to prosecute individuals that believe they have successfully beaten the system. So, the main goal of computer forensic experts is not only to find the culprit but also to find out proper evidence in a manner against culprit that leads to legal action and to ensure the integrity of computer system and law.
Many countries however have not updated their laws to centre for admission of digital evidence in courts. All needs to be updated regularly so that emerging changes in new technology reduces gap as well as training judicial and law enforcement involved. Training should contain both basic and technical aspects.
Source sites
https://www.coursera.org
https://images.app.goo.gl/GoGzMm1TgWnpjqTe8
https://www.slideshare.net/KakshaPatel3/legal-aspects-of-digital-forensics
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quotes – Edewede oriwoh
https://www.cyberforensics.in
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